From the moment he came into office, President Bush had put drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) at the top of his agenda to increase domestic oil and gas production.

But now, having to concede defeat amid opposition from Democrats and moderate Republicans in Congress, the Bush administration is diverting its emphasis - and potentially the next symbolic environmental battleground - offshore.

As the Senate prepares to debate energy legislation as early as this week, Americans are likely to learn about another piece of Alaskan geography even more remote than ANWR. It's an icy stretch of ocean, comprising the northernmost extent of US waters, called the Beaufort Sea.

Geologists say huge pockets of oil and natural gas may exist beneath the bottom of the ocean floor and could be of interest to the president and the oil industry.

Depending on the outcome of what could be a fiery partisan exchange in the Senate, the Interior Department could open nearly 10 million acres of Arctic barrier islands and ocean to energy exploration by the middle of summer.

But the area, which extends from Barrow, Ala., in the west to the US-Canada border in the east, is valued by environmentalists. Here, endangered bowhead whales cruise the icy-blue depths, polar bears prowl in search of seals, and native Inupiats still practice maritime hunts.

The region also constitutes some of the world's most hostile conditions for drilling.

"There is enough oil and gas that if companies want to bid on it and explore, we will make it accessible," says John Goll, the regional director in Alaska for the federal Minerals Management Service, which administers off-shore drilling for the Interior Department. "But that still doesn't mean development will happen because exploration is expensive and there are no guarantees of success."

Estimates of commercially recoverable oil in the Beaufort Sea range from four to 12 billion barrels, and Mr. Goll adds that there is believed to be between 13 and 63 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - a commodity that would become more attractive if a proposed natural-gas pipeline from northern Alaska is built.

Relatively few exploration wells, perhaps 30, have been drilled recently in the Beaufort, and only one major development exists parallel to the several hundred miles of coastline. But congressional action could set the stage for a much larger infrastructure of drilling platforms, pipelines, ship traffic, and roads onshore.

"The level of intrusion itself is worrisome," says Pamela Miller of Arctic Connections, an organization based in Anchorage specializing in assessing the impacts of energy development on coastal areas. "If there's major development and a spill in the ocean, we're going to have a disaster because it would be next to impossible to contain."

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